RAVISSANTE!

These, oh so pretty, French bed hangings, do, I think, come into the category of just 'ravishing'. I spotted them spilling out of a cardboard box at the big French textile/antiques fair at Montpelier last week. They looked so tired, so dirty, so crumpled, that I was suspicious they would fall to bits if I pulled them out to inspect. They were yellow with old tobacco fumes(the French will smoke in bed) smelly and weighed down with heavy metal curtain rings, but I decided to risk the lot and staggered to my car with all in a plastic sack to keep the car's air nicotine-free. Later, back home, to my delight, a couple of days in three changes of cold water, some oxygen powder and mild soap, they have come up to something very near their original beauty and are now very bright and usable with original colours and patterns seen at their best.See later BLOG Any Connection and Pretty Good.  The big long soak is my secret for removing the dinginess of old cotton fabrics with white backgrounds - it does most of the work for you as it is soaking the inner core of the woven threads and the oxygen powder will then release the grease and dirt that is trapped deep in the material which your washing machine is unlikely to reach in a short wash.  See later BLOG Any Connection? and Pretty Good, for more about the curtains.
I use the same process for our own hankies, pillow cases and underwear that are losing their sparkle!(SORRY TO MENTION THIS DIRTY WASHING IN PUBLIC!)
  I really like this delicate Spring flower design with its ribbon twirly borders - so easy to complement with either blue or pink accessories in a bedroom with a few touches of green if you must! All for sale - four very deep PELMET bed curtains and a good big full length one, and a canopy, all lined, interlined and in good used condition but with several poor patches on the linings.  A real challenge for the home do- it -yourselfer!  The touches of mauve are so typical of French flowery patterns and I love it all! A bigger (photo) shot is to follow.


Can  anyone please date this print for me?